Apart from issuing warnings, the government virtually did not take any steps against the private universities that failed to move to their permanent campuses over the last few years.
After extending deadlines for the universities four times, the government formed a committee yesterday to identify the reasons behind the universities not moving into their own permanent campuses.
The committee was formed at a joint meeting between the education ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) at the latter's office in the capital's Agargaon.
Led by UGC member Prof Md Akhtar Hossain, the four-member committee would submit a report with recommendations by June 30.
“We will take steps on the basis of the report,” said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid after the meeting.
The committee, however, would find other problems in the private universities and come up with reports periodically, he said.
The Private University Act-2010 makes it compulsory for a private university to have a permanent campus within seven years of launch.
Currently, there are 84 functional private universities in the country and 51 of them are over seven years old.
Soon after the passage of the act in 2010, the education ministry insisted that the private universities move to their permanent campuses. It issued four deadlines to the universities so far and the last one expired on January 31.
The minister had warned that if the universities failed to comply, their temporary approvals would be cancelled. He had also directed the universities not to enrol new students until they moved into their permanent campuses.
But, only 12 of the 51 universities moved into their permanent campuses until last month while the rest did not move to their campuses completely, according to UGC sources.
Asked about the non-compliance of the 39 universities, Nahid said the government did not want to be hostile towards private universities as the sector had huge potentials.
“Our aim is not to shut them down. We want to develop this sector as our children are studying at these institutions. We want the private universities to run following rules,” he said.
The minister said when the government assumed power in 2009, there were 56 private universities and most of them had a tendency to ignore the rules and regulations.
“We had to put pressure on them over the years and at the same time, we tried to persuade them into complying with rules and conditions,” he added.
The 39 universities were either operating their academic activities partially at their new campuses or were building their campuses, he said, adding that one university did not even buy a piece of land for its campus.
About the newly formed committee, the minister said the first job of the committee would be to find out if a private university has vice-chancellor, pro-vice-chancellor and treasurer posts vacant. The committee would try to unearth why those posts were vacant.
The other members in the committee are UGC member M Shah Nowaz Ali, Education Ministry's Additional Secretary (university) Abdullah Al Hasan Chowdhury and UGC Deputy Director Jesmin Parvin.
Jesmin was made the member secretary of the committee. The committee would be able to co-opt new members, said the minister.
Sources in the UGC said they expected that an announcement of punitive action would be made at the meeting, as it was convened to decide on the actions to be taken against the non-compliant universities.
Around 4.63 lakh students are now studying at the 84 private universities, according to UGC.